2019 SOTF-TV Seasons
Season Fifty-Eight Dates: February 2019 Winner: Adriana Elliot (six kills) Runner Up: Clive Torres (four kills) Third Place: Ashley Sanderson (two kills, escaped) Location: The Sandstone Casino and Hotel, located in Red Rock, Nevada. Notable Participants: *''Adriana Elliot'' (winner, six kills) – A quiet musician and member of the goth subculture, Adriana had spent the first part of the game hiding, afraid for her life. After killing first an innocent girl and then an active player in self-defense, Adriana gave in and began to play herself. Her kills came up sporadically throughout the game and carried her to the end. *''Clive Torres'' (second place, four kills) – A basketball player turned player hunter, Clive was an infamous contestant who liked to monologue as he killed the players he targeted. While his capabilities carried him through Endgame, his mannerisms made him very unpopular with the fanbase, as he was seen as quite cheesy and forced. *''Ashley Sanderson'' (third place, two kills, escaped) – A mechanically-inclined student who was president of the school's science and engineering club, Ashley attempted to disable the collars and find a way to escape. Her game had several ups and downs, as she lost all of her allies in the pursuit of freedom, which also led her to make some morally-questionable choices. However, this did lead to a surprising turn of events during Endgame. *''Thomas Bright'' (fourth place, four kills) – A bullied student, Thomas turned violent in the game. He began playing by luring a girl into a false sense of security and killing her. Thomas continued to play and made his way to Endgame, although he was noted to be quite flat for a villain and didn't have much of an impression on the fans. *''Leone Edgerton'' (fifth place, three kills), Eve Nichols (sixth place, one kill), Griffin Potter (seventh place, one kill), and Salvatore Fiorella (eight place, two kills) – A group of friends back home in Providence, this quartet agreed to help each other through the game, but resolved to stick to a morally-defensible path. Their alliance, which would later add Ashley to its ranks, led to some interesting late-game developments and helped bring about many of the events in Endgame. *''Jude Hale'' (ninth place, one kill) – A boy known for being shifty and creepy back home, Jude tried to make it through the game using underhanded tactics including robbery and sneak attacks, his focus always on survival. His actions in late stages of the game would spur several events that shaped the final outcome. *''Hope Neiman'' (tenth place, three kills) – An overweight, bullied girl, Hope took to the roof of a Mexican restaurant to snipe anyone who crossed an open area. While this helped her pick off three other students, the strategy ultimately was a lesson in how not to play a sniper role, and leading her into substantial trouble. *''Pearl Clemson'' (fourteenth place, one kill) – Known at school as a kind dancer, Pearl committed the first murder of the game and grappled with the crime for most of the remainder. At the end of her life, she kickstarted Ashley's attempt to escape and provided knowledge that would aid the girl down the road. *''Colleen Harrow'' (fifteenth place, three kills) – A friend of Ashley's from before the game, Colleen joined Ashley early on in an attempt to escape. However, Colleen's decisions following the attack of Jimmy Irvine and Nick Rippert led to events that resulted in the death of another friend, her own demise, and Ashley's increasingly dubious methods. *''May Pickman'' (twenty-sixth place, one kill) – A friend of Ashley and Colleen, May was a sweet, funny girl who brought levity to her group. It was her death that caused a split in Ashley and Colleen's alliance which led to their ultimate fates. *''Nick Rippert'' (twenty-seventh place, no kills) and Jimmy Irvine (twenty-eighth place, no kills) – A pair of friends who attempted to rob students and tried to weaken others through various indirect methods, their attack on Ashley, Colleen, and May resulted in several deaths and pushed a lot of stories ahead. Summary: Forty-eight students from Providence, Rhode Island were selected for Season Fifty-Eight and sent to the Sandstone Casino and Hotel in Red Rock, Nevada. The casino had been struggling over the last few years and approached the SOTF producers with a scheme to rent the location as an arena for a season, under the theory that it would help build exposure for the casino and pull it out of the red. The arena included the main casino, a seven-story hotel building, a performance hall, an adjoining Mexican restaurant, an outdoor pool area, a mini golf course, a rose garden, and the parking lot; the arena was separated from the outside world by a hefty fence. The season started fairly slowly and a bit disappointingly. In the early game, a lot of students responsible for the first few murders perished shortly afterwards. Sigourney Turpin and Floyd Griswold showed early promise when they killed Ridley Morrigan and Kai Jewel, respectively, but were themselves eliminated before the first announcement, Sigourney by Julius Richardson and Floyd by Tyrone Smalls. Tyrone Smalls showed further promise, taking out Fritz Gardner shortly after murdering Floyd, but was soon killed by Salvatore Fiorella. This caused a lot of frustration with the audience, as anyone who was starting to show potential died shortly thereafter. The notable contestants proved to be those who were more intelligent and careful in their actions. This is where contestants like Thomas Bright and Hope Neiman began to gain traction. Thomas Bright had often been bullied at school, and he knew he'd be an easy target. Assigned a butterfly knife, Thomas knew he'd have to play carefully and sought to avoid being identified as a threat. He managed to kill Abigail Huxley early on by playing himself as frightened and weak, then slit her throat when she was distracted enough to let her guard down. This earned him a Colt .45, increasing his potential for violence. Hope Neiman, an overweight and physically weak girl, was assigned a sniper rifle. Believing she would lose in any direct fights, she decided the best way to proceed in the game would be to kill people without having to approach them. She noticed that there was an open pathway between the casino building and the hotel, which students would have to cross to get from one to another. Hope positioned herself on the roof of the Mexican restaurant, which had a good angle on this path, and took her time aiming, attempting to shoot anyone who passed by. This allowed her to kill Keenan Shipley, Allan Kent, and Bethany Su in a short period of time surrounding the first announcement, halfway through the first day. There were a few other students who were at least making an attempt to play the game unconventionally. Ashley Sanderson teamed up with her friends, Colleen Harrow and May Pickman, to try to find a way out of the game without killing anyone. Ashley, the president of the science and engineering club at school, thought she might be able to find a way to get the collars off, at which point escape could be fairly easily effected by hopping the border fence. The girls traveled through the arena, trying to find tools that could help, and near the end of the first day were approached by Jimmy Irvine and Nick Rippert. Jimmy and Nick had plotted to rob anyone they could, in order to gather as many supplies as possible to better last out the game. Seeing the trio of girls with no obvious weapons, the boys tried to attack in order to steal their supplies. This led to a short scuffle between the students, which was only exacerbated when Colleen suddenly pulled out the revolver she'd kept stowed out of sight. Jimmy tackled her, knocking the gun out of her hands, and tried to strangle her. However, May quickly reclaimed the gun and shot Jimmy in the head. Panicking over Jimmy's death, Nick tried to run away. May returned the gun to Colleen, assuming that they'd let Nick run since he was no longer an active threat. Colleen, however, had a different idea, suddenly raising the gun and shooting Nick in the back, a hit that proved fatal. May asked why Colleen had killed the boy, and Colleen stated that Nick would've tried to get revenge, and was still a danger to others besides. May and Colleen argued about whether it was justified to kill Nick, with Ashley trying in vain to get them to calm down. However, May pushed Colleen's buttons, accusing her of actually being worse than the boy she'd killed. Colleen, in a rage, turned the revolver on May and shot her. Colleen then turned to Ashley, apologized, and ran away, leaving Ashley alone. While all of this was going on, Adriana Elliot had made her mark. Adriana was a shy goth musician, who would not have been considered an obvious threat based on her reputation at school, but the stress of the game soon got to her. Armed with a TEC-9, she had no idea how she was supposed to survive and at first took to hiding in the rose garden. Near the end of the first day, she heard some rustling and fired without thinking. After a spell of silence, she emerged from her hiding place to discover that she had shot Bridget Sebold, a girl who was armed with only a pack of poker chips. Horrified that she had murdered an innocent girl, Adriana resolved to be much more careful moving forward. By the start of the second day, the number of students had been reduced to about half, a rather quick pace for a season of the size of Fifty-Eight likely partially spurred by the enclosed nature of the arena, which corralled students through a number of hubs of movement such as Hope's kill-zone and offered many opportunities to become cornered. The halfway point was crossed when Isabella Walden threw herself off the roof of the hotel, leaving her broken body as a haunting sign for anyone entering the hotel from the rear entrance. Thomas racked up two more kills, taking out Cindy Kingsley and Angela Ludden when he stumbled upon them hiding in a hotel room. Adriana also reached her turning point shortly after the second announcement. While she was moving through the mini golf course, she stumbled upon Ivan Fray. Ivan had snapped earlier in the game when he came across Cassius Thatcher standing over the bodies of Christie Bell and Ashton Wilmer. Assuming Cassius had murdered them, Ivan snuck up on the boy and smashed him in the back of the head with a heavy ashtray to avenge the dead pair. It wasn't until the next announcement that Ivan learned that Cassius and Christie were allies who were attacked by Ashton. Ashton killed Christie, and Cassius killed him in self-defense. Horrified that he had murdered an innocent, Ivan eventually abandoned his morality and adopted a more violent, survivalist playstyle. Seeing Adriana and knowing that she had killed an innocent girl hours earlier, Ivan attacked her. Adriana tried to dodge his grabs and punches, but soon tripped and rolled her ankle. Seeing no other choice, Adriana turned her gun on Ivan and shot him to death. Adriana limped away from the scene and tried to put her ankle on ice, fearing that any damage to her mobility would impair her ability to survive. Thinking about the fight, Adriana decided she had to be a survivor no matter what. People were going to assume the worst of her now that she had a second kill to her name, so she may as well meet their challenges. Adriana decided to rest her ankle for as long as possible, locking herself in a hotel for most of the day. Since running from Ashley, Colleen had taken to hiding in the performance hall. She had spent a bit of time contemplating her future course. It wasn't until she was startled by Julius Richardson that she scored another kill, shooting him when he walked in on her. Colleen was horrified to have impulsively turned to violence once again, and considered turning her gun on herself, but before she could reach a decision she was surprised and killed by another player. Clive Torres had committed the fourth kill of the game back on the first day, turning the tables on Chance Eggert when the boy tried to rob him. After a while, Clive had decided that the best way to play would be to hunt those who had turned to murder. He was armed with a machete, and he used Colleen's distracted contemplation of her weapon to slash his blade into her neck. Clive took his victim's revolver and set out in search of more players to kill. Ashley, meanwhile, was trying to figure out what to do with the collars. She had studied May's collar privately, and soon developed a theory about how the collars worked. Ashley noticed that, on the very back of the collars, there was a small groove that looked like something could fit into it. She had spent her time exploring what it could be, and developed a theory that something could be inserted into the groove, possibly some sort of key that could be used to wrench the collars off. She soon found another subject to test this theory on. Ashley came across Pearl Clemson in one of the hotel hallways. Pearl had committed the first murder of the game when she stabbed Ella Moreno in a moment of panic, and the guilt had taken a toll on her. With more and more students dying, Pearl decided to commit suicide, and slashed her wrists with the kitchen knife she'd killed Ella with. Ashley, who came across Pearl right after she opened her wrists, suggested to the girl that she try to figure out how to get Pearl's collar off. Pearl, who was already dying, agreed to let Ashley try, and the two agreed that if Ashley succeeded, she would try to get Pearl over the fence to get medical attention. Ashley studied the groove in Pearl's collar and thought she might be able to use Pearl's knife to substitute for her posited key. Ashley took the knife and jammed it into the groove, but to her surprise this instead detonated the collar, killing Pearl. Ashley was in shock, which escalated when she realized she was no longer alone; a group of four students—Griffin Potter, Eve Nichols, Leone Edgerton, and Salvatore Fiorella—arrived, drawn by the noise. This quartet, all close friends back home, had allied early on. They had made their way through the game without seeking trouble, but had defended themselves lethally on a number of occasions, with Griffin and Eve each having killed once previously, and Salvatore having killed Tyrone and another student; this left Leone the only one without blood on his hands. The group had promised to only kill dangerous or threatening students, and had done their best to stick to this; all of their kills were regarded as more or less justified. The group was torn upon finding Ashley over Pearl's body. Leone thought they should kill Ashley, while Griffin proposed they just leave her. Salvatore, having taken the unofficial leadership position, suggested they hear Ashley out. Eve seconded him, and Ashley explained her theory regarding the collars. As Pearl's collar had detonated when the knife was inserted into the groove, Ashley figured another material must be necessary, likely something non-conductive. By this point, only a quarter of the original forty-eight students remained, and the odds of running into dangerous players like Thomas and Adriana had become much greater. Salvatore suggested the five of them try to figure out the collars together. They risked running out of opportunities to search for materials when the number of permanent danger zones increased, which made manpower important to their success. Plus, with their numbers, they could better defend themselves, since it was unlikely there were any groups larger than theirs remaining. As the third day of the season dawned, twelve students were left alive. Ashley, Salvatore, Eve, Griffin, and Leone scrounged through the remaining areas, trying to figure out what could slot into the collar groove without setting it off. Thomas gained another kill when he found Harley Gilbert hiding in the casino vault. Meanwhile, Adriana found Danny Tripp, the last student besides Leone without a kill to his name. Danny tried to beg and plead for mercy, but Adriana realized that time was running out and few students remained. Deciding she couldn't be compassionate, she shot the boy as he was on his knees crying to be spared. Clive, meanwhile, was surprised when he was narrowly missed by a bullet while crossing from the hotel to the casino. Putting together information from the first two announcements and the bodies strewn around the area, he realized that Hope Neiman had set up on the roof of the Mexican restaurant. Clive decided to creep his way over, and spent most of the night slowly closing in, trying to figure out Hope's blind spots. By this point, Hope was suffering from exhaustion, dehydration, and lethargy. She had spent so long on the roof that she had been severely sunburned, had gone through all of her provided water half a day before, and had barely gotten any sleep. Because of the corpses of the three people she had killed earlier in the game, most students had simply elected to avoid the open route, with Clive being the first to seriously attempt a crossing since a near miss shortly after Hope killed Bethany Su a day earlier. Over two hours of waiting punctuated by quick scrambles to new pieces of cover, Clive managed to sneak into the Mexican restaurant and up onto the roof. He crept up behind Hope, who realized too late that she was no longer alone. She tried to shoot him, but had trouble bringing her weapon to bear at close range. Clive managed to knock the exhausted girl down and pressed her rifle to her neck. As she gasped for air, Clive told her how great it felt to kill murderers like her, and spiralled into a dark and disturbing monologue as Hope slowly suffocated. Once she was dead, Clive took her rifle and positioned himself in her place, thinking it easy to wait for others to pass. He propped Hope's large body against the door, making it harder to quickly open, and thus fortified he planned to stay on the roof until he was forced to move. With nine students left, Ashley's group made their way to the casino floor, still seeking something to use as a key to the collars but hindered somewhat by a lack of opportunity to experiment. Before they could make much progress searching the area, they were discovered by Jude Hale. Seeing such a large, heavily armed group including four killers caused Jude to panic. Jude had made his way through the game by laying low and stealing from corpses, although one attempted robbery had gone wrong and resulted in him clubbing Sandrine LaRue to death. Now, however, with Endgame approaching, he tried to figure out how to dismantle this group, which he felt could represent an almost-insurmountable threat once all surviving students were corralled into a small space. Jude was armed with only a wooden baseball bat, but figured he could lure members from the group one by one and pick them off. Jude set one of the slot machines off, and the clatter made the quintet question who else was in the large, cluttered room. Salvatore and Griffin went to look, but Ashley soon followed. Jude, not realizing how many students were approaching his position, tried to attack Salvatore, but Salvatore reacted quickly and was able to dodge the attack. Seeing this, Griffin and Ashley rushed to their ally's aide, trying to subdue Jude, but the boy flailed wildly at them with his bat, panicking now that he was so outnumbered. Ashley finally managed to trip Jude, dropping him on his back, and called for Griffin to tackle him. Ashley said that Jude was dangerous, but that didn't necessarily mean he had to die. She argued that they could use the boy as a test subject for another attempt at disabling the collars. The others were surprised, but most of them were unsympathetic towards Jude due to his attempted murder and thus thought giving him the possibility of survival if the test worked was actually quite merciful. Leone was the only one to protest, noting that too much time spent fiddling with the collars could run out the producers' patience and get all of their collar detonated; better, Leone thought, not to waste a chance for salvation on someone who had attacked the group. Ashley said they had nothing to lose, as if they abandoned their attempt all but one would surely die and nobody felt like volunteering to take Jude's place. She decided to take responsibility for any consequences that might result from testing her theories on the boy. Jude's bat had been destroyed in the fight when he accidentally smashed it against a slot machine, and Ashley found a sliver about the right size to slot into the collar. She slid it snugly into the groove, but this once again proved a failure, causing Jude's collar to detonate, killing him instantly and startling the group. At this moment, Leone finally lost it. He argued that staying around Ashley had constantly landed the group in further danger, and insisted that they were sliding quickly and inexorably towards getting their collars blown. Salvatore argued that they were learning through trial and error, and the fact that their collars hadn't been detonated already meant that there was a chance they were close to escape or at least that the producers were not hostile to their attempts. Leone refused to be persuaded, stating that he was done chasing a dream. Leone pulled out his pistol and pointed it at Ashley. The others protested, but Leone insisted that Ashley had to go. Salvatore moved between the two, stepping towards Leone and telling the boy to lower his weapon, but the shock of being so directly approached caused Leone to fire. Salvatore was shot in the throat, and he fell to the ground, stunned that his friend had fired; he quickly bled out. Leone panicked, realizing he had killed Salvatore for nothing, but had no time to think before Griffin punched him. Leone fought back, firing repeatedly at Griffin from point blank range. Griffin was hit a few times, but was still mobile enough to continue pummeling. As the boys fought, Ashley ran away, and when Eve was narrowly missed by a shot of Leone's that went wide, she fled as well. Griffin continued to grapple with Leone, but his injuries quickly slowed him and he soon weakened enough for Leone to push him away; Griffin bounced off a slot machine and fell to the ground, where he swiftly died. Leone, traumatized and unhinged after killing two of his friends, shouted that he only wanted to kill Ashley. He called for Eve not to be afraid of him, and began to search the casino floor for her. Ashley and Eve had gone in separate directions, and both were trying to stealthily slip away from Leone. Leone moved towards any sound he heard, edging ever closer to one girl or the other. Finally, someone broke for the exit, and Leone spun and opened fire. To his horror, it had been Eve, not Ashley, and his shots had connected. Eve had decided that, despite his claims to only be a danger to kill Ashley, Leone was too far gone to be safe to stay near. When he'd moved slightly away from her, lured by a sound Ashley made, Eve had thought to make a quick dash for the exit while her former friend was distracted, but had been struck in the head by a bullet. With Eve dead, Leone fell to his knees in tears, while Ashley remained hidden. After about a half hour of stalemate, the producers declared Endgame, naming the casino floor as the arena. Ashley and Leone were already there, while Adriana, Clive, and Thomas had to make their way over. Leone called out to Ashley, telling her that with three players heading their way, she was almost certain to die. He offered to kill her painlessly in a "better the devil you know" sort of way, stating that then he'd survive to make the losses of Salvatore, Griffin, and Eve meaningful. He crept around the casino floor, searching and calling out for Ashley, who was hiding under a poker table. Leone came closer to her position, but before he could discover her, he was suddenly shot in the shoulder. Panicking, he opened fire in the direction of his unknown assailant, but was hit again, this time in the center of his chest. His body toppled, rebounding off the poker table, knocking over some of the cards and poker covering it, and landing in front of Ashley. Leone died shortly, unaware that he was right next to his quarry. His killer was Adriana, who had arrived before the other two and had followed Leone by his monologuing. Ashley remained silent and hidden, but kept her eye on Leone's body, a realization seemingly brewing. As Clive and Thomas arrived, Ashley pulled Leone's body under the table. Soon the two boys joined Adriana in a three-way firefight. The trio wound their ways through the casino, firing at one another, shouting, and taking cover wherever they could. As they did, Ashley examined Leone's collar and realized that the groove was exactly the same width as the dense clay poker chips. Snapping a chip in half, she fitted it into Leone's collar, which failed to detonate like Pearl's and Jude's had. While Ashley believed that this was a specifically designed solution, the truth was rather more mundane; the collars required a non-conductive surface that blocked not just one but several points of connection, while the sliver of bat had not been shaped properly to do. In fact, the producers had not considered the possibility of the chips being used for such a purpose; they'd been strewn about the casino mostly at the insistence of its owners, as each chip prominently featured the Sandstone's logo. Meanwhile, Clive cornered Thomas managing to shoot him several times. Thomas made one last failed attempt at gunning down Clive, but his shots went wide, in part due to his dominant arm having been shattered by one of Clive's bullets. With one more Endgamer down, Clive and Adriana were left to continue the fight. Ashley, fearing the duo would come for her next, or that the winner of the fight would hunt her down, decided to take her chances with the collars. While the chips could block the signal, she still needed to figure a way to actually remove her collar, as her tool was not shaped properly to actually unlock it. Leone's gun had fallen not far from his body, and Ashley quickly darted out and retrieved it, before returning to her hiding place. She fit the other half of the chip into her collar, then pressed the gun against the collar at the joint, hoping she could shoot it off without killing herself. She closed her eyes, prayed, and fired. To her surprise, the collar came completely off. Ashley at first couldn't believe her success, but quickly realized she had also just drawn Clive and Adriana her way via the sound of her gunshot. Ashley knew her best bet was to make it out the exit and into the safety of the Danger Zone, but also knew that the others wouldn't just let her go. She took her loose collar and hurled it as far as she could. It rebounded off a slot machine two dozen feet away, which distracted Adriana and Clive long enough for her to bolt out a nearby fire exit. Ashley ran out of the casino, and right into the medical extraction team waiting to pick up the winner. With that, Ashley had officially escaped the game in third place. What Ashley didn't realize was that by throwing the collar she had also set the final steps of Endgame in motion. Adriana was the closer player to Ashley at the time of the throw. When the collar hit the slot machine, Adriana turned towards it, and in so doing spotted Clive, who was creeping around for a flank. Adriana opened fire on the boy, who scrambled for cover; in fact, the pair were so focused on their gunfight that neither noticed Ashley's departure. Clive continued to rant and monologue to a disinterested Adriana from behind a row of slot machines. As he mocked her, he suddenly paused, short of breath, then coughed two times and toppled. He had been so distracted and pumped up on adrenaline that he hadn't even realized that Adriana had landed a hit on his lower gut in her last volley. Clive lay on the ground bleeding out while Adriana approached him. He tried to get out some last words and take another shot, but Adriana put a bullet through his head before he could manage. Adriana stood over Clive's body, as to her shock, she was announced the winner of Season Fifty-Eight of Survival of the Fittest. The cameras kept rolling through Adriana's extraction, as she calmly walked out of the casino floor and had a shocked and hilarious reaction when she realized Ashley was also there, having been declared a successful escapee. Legacy: *Rated as: Average *Season Fifty-Eight was a very mixed season from the beginning. A number of players who seemed to have potential were cut down early without much fanfare, leading to some difficulty for audiences trying to get invested in particular stories and players. The season also faced criticism for a number of the driving forces who did last a while. Players like Thomas Bright, Clive Torres, and Adriana Elliot all received some derision for having similar motivations and lacking depth, with Thomas and Adriana in particular being considered quite flat. Clive, meanwhile, was the subject of much outright mockery. His monologues were considered overblown, with many positing that he had been utterly unsuccessfully attempting to pander to the fans and frame himself as holding the moral high ground; where such actions had led to interesting studies in cognitive dissonance in the past, however, the exaggerated nature of Clive came off insincere and cheesy. The season did, however, have saving graces in the events of the last day and in Ashley Sanderson. The final day was lauded for containing the most exciting events of the season, with many arcs connecting and the actions smoothly flowing from one scene to the next. Ashley was praised for being the most complex contestant of the season, as her plans to escape and her willingness to play dirty in pursuit of that goal made her fascinating to the public. Her escape in the final moments of the game was also praised for its audacity, execution, and novelty, with many proclaiming that the season was saved by it. It was generally agreed that Ashley was unlikely to survive an actual engagement Endgame with Thomas, Clive, and Adriana running around, even were she to wait until only one remained, and so her escape was the miracle needed to allow the fan favorite to emerge from the season alive. The immediate post-game encounter between Adriana and Ashley also went viral due to the expression Adriana made when she saw Ashley with the extraction team. *The Sandstone Casino and Hotel received a boost in tourism following the season, and plans were made to expand it. However, three months later, the resort suffered an electrical fire which destroyed the casino area and part of the Mexican restaurant, forcing the casino to shut down for months. As of late 2020, the restaurant has reopened, but the casino remains shuttered, with renovations and repairs encountering numerous delays, forcing the resort to survive on its hotel and performance hall. *Since escaping, Ashley Sanderson has been modest in her fame. She accepted the money from royalties and gave several interviews, but quickly returned to a low profile. Ashley is currently attending college at Yale, studying mechanical engineering. Following Season Sixty, she started a web series where she analyzes the technical aspects of the collars on SOTF, attempting to theorize how to disable them in each season, and has a recurrent contest to see whether her theory will be proven correct or not. She has also used her web show to analyze the mechanics of machines and robots in film and television, discussing whether they'd work in real life and how they could possibly be constructed. *Official winner Adriana Elliot has had a less-than-successful turn since her victory. She accepted her royalties and made what media appearances she could, and even attempted to release an album of goth metal music that she created shortly after winning. However, the album, "Bloodstone," received negative reviews upon release, selling mostly on novelty and performing poorly for the amount of money spent promoting it, especially give her celebrity status. She was quickly dropped by her label. Adriana continues to release music independently and lives in Los Angeles, California. Suggested by: Laurels Season Fifty-Nine Dates: ''' 2019 '''Winner: '''Unknown '''Runner Up: Third Place: Location: Notable Participants: * Summary: Legacy: * Suggested by: Season Sixty Dates: ''' 2019 '''Winner: '''N/A '''Runner Up: N/A Third Place: N/A Location: A modestly sized island, formerly a small-scale boating destination, complete with campside. Notable Participants: * Malik Ismat (escapee) - A cheerful sportsman specialising in running track, Malik was a fairly popular figure early on purely due to being rather handsome. He joined up with boyfriend Brett Ultrech fairly early, but after Brett was killed, he inadvertently discovered a crippling flaw in the season 60 collars. Although Malik was not the first to find the flaw, he was the first to realise its implications and spread knowledge of it around the island, eventually causing the season to collapse entirely. * George King (five kills) - Heavily bullied in school, King panicked the moment he was dropped onto the island. Fortunately for him, he was also assigned a machine pistol, giving him the ability to back up his fear with significant firepower. Never hesitating to shoot first and ask questions later, King drew a decent following as a result of his unique style of playing - bursts of gun battling action followed by tears, introspection, and self doubt, giving him surprising sympathy for a villain. * Jake Fenwick (two kills) - An interesting example of someone buying very much into the 'culture' surrounding SOTF-TV. Jake picked up a kill early on day one, and sought to establish himself as an entertaining fan favourite villain, but thereafter never quite found the opportunity to expand upon his first kill. He did create a moment of controversy during the escape plot where it seemed he might be able to bring it down from within, but ultimately this failed and after being beaten up and bound, he was extracted with the rest of the survivors. * Nadia Gibbs (escapee) - The first person to have their collar cease functioning, she has been nicknamed 'No-clue Nadia' as not only did she fail to pick up on the fact that her collar had broken for the entire game, she outright refused to believe that the collars could break when told about the faults by a member of Malik's group. Summary: Season 60 goes down in infamy as a disaster for the show's organisers—a thoroughly botched season. Although the early stages of the game proceeded normally for the students from Salt Lake City, Utah, with the usual subset of individuals falling into the broad archetypes of playing, trying to find friends, and attempting escape, a major mechanical fault was afoot. A planned flaw in the collars had in fact had the unintended side effect of rendering them inert as soon as they detected the presence of a danger zone. Realising this right after the first announcement, when the collars of individuals in the first danger zones ceased responding, the TV executives took the decision to cross their fingers and hope that none of the students would cotton on to what had gone wrong. This approach fell apart on the dawn of day 4, right after the third announcement. Up until this point, a student by the name of George King had been making a name for himself, scoring kills at a rate of one a day and proving a relatively popular figure due to his relatable 'frightened nerd' persona. Just prior to the third announcement, King had burst in on a shack, within which were residing couple Brett Ultrech and Malik Ismat. In a panic, King gunned down Brett and fled, and despairing, Malik chose to remain within the area after it was announced to be a danger zone in an attempt to take his own life. When this failed, the realisation of the collar fault hit. Over the course of the next two days, Malik would travel the island and spread the knowledge of the flaw. Whilst not everyone believed him, enough of the people Malik encountered were willing to follow the slim hope of survival that the number of disabled collars rapidly grew to the point of being an insurmountable issue for the executives. By midday on day 6, of the surviving 33 students (of an initial 56), 20 had collars no longer functioning, and of those 20 students, 16 were in an organised group based in a danger zone and sending out scouting parties to bring others into the fold. At this stage, with so many participants in open rebellion against the game, audiences in uproar, and it becoming clear that very few of those remaining would see the game through to completion with an alternate route out on offer, the executives were close to throwing in the towel. There was a brief moment late in day 6 where it seemed as if the game might burst into violence again. Jake Fenwick who had joined the 'escape' group relatively early with a kill already under his belt, cut the throat of one of the other members remaining in the basecamp DZ. Having murdered the sleeping individual, Jake attempted to stab the person on watch in the back, only for their cry of alarm to rouse the others. Summarily overwhelmed and then tied up, Jake would later claim, in step with his reasoning of killing to start with, that he had wanted to 'be somebody' and become famous through winning SOTF. In any case, as day 6 concluded and another three participants were brought into Malik's fold, the executives finally conceded defeat and called the remainder of the season off. The sixth announcement saw the declaration that the game was officially over due to the 'cunning discovery' of the collar flaw. This unconvincing lie was immediately seen through both in game and by audiences, and season sixty ended ignominiously with a record 29 survivors, including Malik, Jake, and a deranged George King who had to be sedated to be brought in without further bloodshed. Legacy: * Rated as: Very poor * Due to the colossal failure in the collar technology, season 60 is generally regarded as a very weak game, although for some it holds interest due to the unconventional modus operandi of the participants that said faults caused. Still, critics point out that unlike a majority of escape attempts, the season 60 escape required little ingenuity on the part of those instigating it, as the fault was discovered accidentally. * Malik Ismat became a vehemently outspoken enemy of the show, damaging SOTF-TV's PR due to being a prominent figure who was neither winner nor traditional escapee and as such had no contractual obligations to prohibit him from doing so. Malik has subsequently published an anti-SOTF book and spoken at several rallies. He is currently completing his education in an NYC college. * George King, having more or less lost his mind in the closing stages of the game, was committed to an institution following his return due to violent instability. An interview conducted with him a year after the game has gone viral as a genuinely disturbing, haunting experience. Suggested by: Namira Season Sixty-One Dates: ''' 2019 '''Winner: '''Danielle Austen (four kills) '''Runner Up: Dave Sawyer (two kills) Third Place: Abigail Trehawke (three kills) Location: A large ranch, featuring multiple farmhouses, barns, and fields. Notable Participants: * Dannielle Austen (1st place): A confident, perhaps strident girl, Danielle's confidence was shaken early when her best friend was the second death of the game. She subsequently proved to be a canny competitor, evading serious confrontations and only fighting when absolutely forced to, always picking her spots sensibly and doing her best not to let her emotions overrule her logic. However, when the chips were down, she proved both resourceful and ruthless, as demonstrated in the vicious knife fight that concluded the game. Unfortunately for the PR of season 61, Danielle's severe injuries resulted in her going into shock upon pick-up, and currently, she has been in a coma for almost a year. * Dave Sawyer (2nd place): Also known as 'the invisible man' due to the fact that in spite of making it to 2nd place in a seventeen day game, he was hardly on camera at all for massive chunks of time. As it happened, Dave was just incredibly good at laying low and knowing when to change places. However, a contestant making it into second place purely as a result of hiding in attics, basements, and in one case, inside a hay bale, does not make for precisely compelling television. He won some respect due to his incredibly violent duel with Danielle at the game's conclusion, but is often derided as a coward. * Abigail Trehawke (3rd place): A rare example of a student who dwelt on morality and what was right and wrong for large periods of the game without becoming boring, jaded, or simply self contradictory. Although Abigail spent a long while morally justifying herself,she maintained her own code for the entire game, and actually has a few very popular conversation scenes with other contestants, rated far higher individually than the season as a whole. * Bobby Dale (5th place): Dogged and gutsy, Bobby dedicated himself to attempting to keep people safe, both his friends and others that he wasn't so close with. A dedicated protector, he never allowed himself to get down even when tragedy struck and he failed in his tasks, and fans of the show are more sympathetic than might be expected, pointing out that the majority of Bobby's failures were as a result of factors outside of his control. * Jamie Lukasdatter (36th place): An early game motivator, Jamie was a relatively normal and well adjusted girl, but also an avid SOTF-TV fan. Thrilled to be on the show, Jamie took serious consideration into playing, becoming one of the few contestants to score a kill inside the first four days, and on day five, encountering a trio willing to try and bring her down. Turning it around, Jamie managed to kill all three with an improvised explosive. Seeming to be heading towards an impressive run, Jamie's rampage was cut anticlimactically short, but she is still remembered fondly in spite of that. * Armand De Christophe (37th place): A loner, Armand rapidly became paranoid that everyone would be out to get him, something unhelped when he encountered school bully Jason Marslow just hours into the game. Jason attempted to steal Armand's supplies, but was stopped by Armand smashing a plate over his head and seizing the opportunity to stab him in the throat with a piece of shattered crockery. Getting an idea, Armand would thus create the infamous 'house of traps', rigging a sizable farmhouse with all manner of tripwires, falling objects, floor traps and even a couple of pressure based snares. His clever use of his issued weapon - a huge roll of twine, and Jason's, a collection of loose blades, as well as several innovative household objects, greatly endeared him to tactical fans of the show. Summary: Season 61 is notorious for being the slowest game in SOTF-TV history. Taking a total of seventeen days to complete, the fifty-four contestants from Conway, Arkansas showed a marked reluctance to participate in the game. This, naturally, came off the heels of the disastrous season 60, many of the students involved holding out significant hope that there would be a repeat of the collar faults from the previous season. No such loophole existed, with the season 61 technology being perhaps the most sophisticated to date, but the legacy of season 60 combined with the overly large arena resulted in a game which dragged tremendously. The first day saw only three deaths, the second and third, two apiece, and the rate dropping to a low of just a single kill on the fourth day. Somewhat fortunately for the pacing, day five exploded into action, one of the season's more notorious players, Jamie Lukasdatter, chalking up three kills to add to the two she had scored already. An unrelated accident and a misunderstanding turned deadly brought the total deaths on day five to six, and for a while, it seemed as if season 61 was all set to pick itself up. Unfortunately, luck and design had other plans. Jamie added two more kills to her tally on day six, but on day seven, ran afoul of Armand de Christophe. Not a quest for revenge, nor a hero seeking to put the dangerous contestant down, simply a paranoid loner who had hooked up a farmhouse with an intricate network of traps. One of these - an improvised blade, came swinging down to take Jamie in the throat. As she lay there bleeding out, an excited Armand came to gloat over his victim—whereupon she managed to shoot and kill him before bleeding out herself, depriving watchers of two interesting motivators in anticlimactic and disappointing fashion. As comprehension dawned that this was not going to be a repeat of the previous season, kills continued to happen, but the pace never again hit the heights of day five, dribbling in at a rate of four or five a day at best. Some competitors would prove to be reasonably interesting watches, including the introspective Abigail Trehawke and tireless Bobby Dale. However, for the most part, the inconsistent pace caused significant lag and long stretches of very little happening, though later on the executives made an effort to force contestants together via tactical use of dangerzones. Endgame itself would take place in the trapped farmhouse of Armand de Christophe. Five contestants entered - Abigail Trehawk, Bobby Dale, Danielle Austen, Dave Sawyer and Arnold Cartan. An immediate blow to the drama was suffered when crowd favourite Bobby collapsed in the immediate vicinity of the building, falling victim to an infected cut that he had received almost a week previously and failed to adequately treat. A fierce gunfight ensued moments later, Abigail knocking off Arnold, but then, wounded, falling prey to Dave. The stage was set, shortly thereafter, for a shockingly brutal battle. Dave, a conservative player for much of the game who had avoided confrontation for the most part, saw the opportunity to finally bring the game to an end and went after Danielle viciously. However, Danielle, though she had been relatively low key for much of the season, had plenty of tricks up her sleeve and carnage ensued as the pair pursued one another through the trapped house, each setting off multiple devices, culminating in a bloody knife fight which saw Danielle blinded in one eye and missing two fingers, but victorious. Legacy: * Rated as: Poor * Although shining in spots, season 61's primary issue was that it took such an incredibly long time to finish. With the poor pace and the lack of excitement, it fell prey to significant down periods, resulting in lacklustre fan interest. Certainly sections of the game were very popular, but without a consistent narrative stringing everything together, watching 61 holistically was almost impossible. It was not a complete failure, and demonstrated that after season 60, the show's organisers were capable of making the formula work again, but it was not very well acclaimed. * The season also suffered due to a lack of a winner. Although several highly engaging personalities were in or not far outside of endgame, the final result rendered the actual winner incapable of providing any of the normal 'winner services'. Due to her critical condition, Danielle was naturally unable to conduct interviews, commercials and so on and so forth, hurting the post-game's marketing potential. * Recently released is an 'abridged' version of season 61, effectively a highlight reel of the best parts of the season, cut together such that all the best parts of all the 'main' characters were included. This has sold surprisingly well and proved significantly more popular, at least in DVD, blue ray and online sales, than the actual season itself. Suggested by: Namira Season Sixty-Two Dates: ' 2019 '''Winner: ' Dexter Milton (one kill) '''Runner Up: Jack Miller (eight kills) Third Place: Jennifer Conway (two kills) Location: An abandoned campground/preservation area. Notable Participants: *Dexter Milton (1st place): Winner of Sixty-Two, Dexter is often referred to as a boring and generally cowardly participant in the long stretch of the game. He’s most often criticised for being incredibly lucky, rather than skilled or determined. He won the game by eliminating Jack Miller, who was the fan favourite to win, by scoring a lucky strike with a knife after a tense shootout. *Jack Miller (2nd place): Fan favourite and cast dark horse, Jack Miller was an example of a powerhouse player who seemed unstoppable at his peak. The hows and whys of Jack Miller’s decision to play are unknown due to the rampant technical difficulties, which only added to his appeal in the eyes of viewers. Jack started with a sledgehammer that he proved very efficient with, and early on also used a revolver to great effect. Jack was an overwhelmingly popular pick to win the game, and when he died in such an underwhelming way, it outraged fans of the show. *Jennifer Conway (3rd place): Probably the worst victim of 62's technical issues, Jennifer's early game was little more than a garbled mess, haphazardly edited together from whatever scraps of footage weren't obscured. She is generally seen as 62's forgotten finalist, due to so much of her story having been lost. *Michael Young (11th place): During the initial season run, Michael was only seen as a particularly brutal victim of Jack Miller’s, and his death became memetic as the signature death of the season - during a foggy and dark fight on a field, Jack followed Michael at a slow walk after wounding his leg with a revolver shot, eventually finishing him by caving in his head with a sledgehammer. It was only after the audio of the season was restored that viewers were able to see Michael as a leader and a good person, whose friends all died out until he broke down. Summary: Season 62, which drew its pool from Reno, Nevada, was plagued by a combination of technical difficulties and environmental catastrophes in the early stages of the game, and these set the tone for the game to follow. The producers, looking to make up for Seasons 61 and 60, decided to make a more ‘cinematic’ approach to the game; utilizing cameras on tracks for motion shots, dramatic camera angles (mostly utilizing shrubbery and trees to rig high and low angles) and even a helicopter for sweeping environmental shots. However, the producers neglected to heed warnings of an infestation of woodland termites that had spread in the area, attracting all manner of birds and raccoons to the arena as the game started. Animals frequently blocked camera footage of contestants, and the sounds of termites eating through trees and birds fishing them out rendered audio largely useless. To make matters worse, the position of the campground in a low valley and the unseasonable humidity brought coatings of fog, rendering the helicopter shot obsolete and unimpressive. By the end of day three and through the manipulation of danger zones, the producers had managed to correct their blunders and adjust for the higher than normal animal traffic. At this point, however, the damage was done, and the audience felt disconnected with the participants, coupled with seventeen students of the forty three participants already dead. One participant stood above the rest of the cast, known as a powerhouse killer armed with a sledgehammer. Jack Miller racked up eight kills in brutal, unmerciful ways, and was far and away the favourite to win the season. Often, fans of the show refer to Jack as the saving grace of the show, in terms of pure entertainment value. However, the disappointing way in which the season concluded proved to be a nail in the coffin for most viewers. Endgame itself was a chaotic affair, taking place in what had once been the campsite’s main gathering hall, and containing an above average number of kids - six in total. Several competitors - including Jack, had armed themselves with guns, whilst Dexter had been using the spot as a hiding place for some time due to the great hall being left alone in terms of danger zones, due to it being one of the only places that produced usable footage and sound quality. A shoot-out ensued, in which the building was shredded by repeated gunfire, to the point where parts of the furnishings were completely destroyed, several walls riddled with bullets. Soon enough, the main combatants had been whittled down to just Jack and another - Jennifer Conway, without a bullet left between them. Jack’s characteristic brutality saw him quickly finish an injured Jennifer off, then begin searching the building to hunt Dexter down. Soon enough, he found his last opponent, but a wayward swing of his sledgehammer brought on by fatigue, excitement, and Dexter tripping over the threshold of a door as he frantically backpedalled, saw a rare miss from Jack. He advanced, stumbled, and half fell, half was stabbed by Dexter’s knife, square in the centre of the chest. Just like that, the game was over. Legacy: * Rated as: Poor * Lacking a strong cast to compensate for its early-game teething problems resulted in a lot of fan disinterest in the season - whilst there were several indications that certain participants COULD have been interesting given some context, the fractured footage rendered building attachments almost impossible. * After 62 ended, producers spent a lot of effort piecing together some of the poorer footage in order to remaster and restore decent audio. This version has thrown up some more interest in the events of 62, providing a bit more information about some of the early game motivators, though it has not really salvaged the season in the eyes of fans. Suggested by: The Homeless Namira Category:SOTF-TV Lore Category:SOTF-TV